Twenty Top Tips for Successful Publicity Posters

Whether organising a fund raising event for the Rainforest, or an educational event - or even a regular meeting - you need publicity. Here are 20 top tips I use when making publicity posters, especially ones for our local Speakers Club

• Does your club need more members?
• Do you want to enrich people’s lives in your area by enabling them to become better speakers?
• Do you want people to come to a specific event?

- then make
– and display ......- Posters!

1. Make sure the title has ONLY ONE (to FOUR) key words and print the Title – 

Big

So big -
that you can read the title from the other side of the road!

(Beware of  erratic driving in Craven, as I drive slowly peering through the window, trying to read my own posters as I go past )

However beautiful,
or professional,
or witty,
the poster is,
however refined you may be yourself,
however expensive the paper it is printed on:
.... it is a complete and utter waste of photocopying paper and shoe-leather to pin up the poster if the writing is too small to read at a distance.

2. Use small case letters not capitals -

It has been proved that small case letters can be read much more easily than capital letters.

3. Make additional small posters:- four per sheet -

As a benefit of the title being big, then small posters can be made, four per sheet, as hand-outs to give people. Give them to people. Put them up on boards where there is no space for an A4 poster

4. The lead in time is long -

Several people have come to our club saying “I saw the poster six months ago and have only just got round to joining.” Or, “I saw the poster last year, but I am getting married now, so I need to practise my speech.”

So whilst putting up posters in, say August, ready for a September start, may seem sensible at first sight, it is much more important to have posters up ALL YEAR.

If you want new people in September, start putting posters up in March!

5. Include the dates of several meetings:- this gives a longer shelf life -

If the poster just has the date of next week’s meeting, it will get taken down after 8 days.

If it has no date, it may stay up longer but it is not fair on other people who come to put up notices and don’t know which ones to take down.  When I am at a jam packed notice board, jig-sawing posters, and  juggling space, to put up Craven Speakers Club posters, I find such dateless posters jar.

6. Add a contact telephone number and website address

People can then jot them down and ask for more details later. And include the ASC website!!!

7. I list our neighbouring speakers clubs at the bottom of the poster.

Who knows if  this has ever worked? (Do tell me neighbouring clubs...) But it is good to support each other. Craven is a touristy area that attracts people from elsewhere

8. Fulfill people's needs

a) Make people see their need .....
b) Show how Speakers Club fulfils their need  - and -
c) Make it sound fun. Meetings are fun!

9. Add something cheerful

A small cartoon or smiley man – to cheer everyone up who sees the poster

10. Top Locations:-

For us, Skipton and Settle Railway Stations & local supermarkets have been good – but keep experimenting

11-15. Remember other ideas important for any printed publication:-

11) Use only one, or at the most two fonts;
12) Get your poster proof read several times before mass printing it;
13) Less is more. Try and cut down the number of words.
14) White space round words emphasises them;
15) With permission use your club or the ASC logo

16. Encourage members of your club to put up the posters - most important!!

Be enthusiastic and persistent. Don’t get discouraged when they forget to put them up; try again next week. If you have gone to the trouble of producing the posters, it is the least they can do to find a few places to display or leave them.


And (my personal advice, though it may be not the same as an average evaluator -) if you are searching for a good way to finsish off a topic speech with a bang, why not (regardless of the initial topic) let it be a call to action – to display posters about your club?

17. ...Space for number 17 

 (Have you a suggestion?)

18 ....Space for number 18

19 ....Space for number 19

20. A new tip I have just learned.. which makes the posters look much more organised (even if they aren't) :- Divide the writing into three blocks with white space in between the blocks.

Does that echo "Make sure a speech has three parts ... and make sure there is space (i.e. pauses in the speech) ? :)

Let me know how you get on - Have you more suggestions about good posters? – have you got a good poster design to show me and let us use for Craven, especially if it includes a jolly cartoon character? Email me at webeditor@craven-speakers.org.uk

Good Luck. And remember to make the title Big